Performance-Based Engineering Framework for Fire Following Earthquake

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to outline a Performance-Based Engineering (PBE) framework to address the multiple hazards of earthquake and Fire Following Earthquake (FFE). Fire codes in the United States are largely empirical and prescriptive in nature. The reliance on prescriptive requirements makes quantifying sustained damage due to fire difficult. The very nature of fire behavior (ignition, growth, suppression, and spread) is fundamentally difficult to quantify due to the inherent randomness present in each stage of fire development. The study of interactions between earthquake and fire is in its infancy with essentially no available empirical testing results. A generalized PBE framework for earthquake and subsequent FFE is presented along with a comparative hazard probability to performance objective matrix and a table of variables necessary to fully implement the proposed framework. Future research requirements, summary, and discussion throughout are provided to describe the cascaded hazards of earthquake and FFE.